How can we reimagine UAV technology...

...to help us navigate challenging situations and complex environments? This is the premise for SkyCall - an autonomous flying quadcopter and personal tour guide - operating in one of mankind’s most difficult and disorientating labyrinths: MIT campus. We tested this technology on someone you would typically expect to be lost within MIT...

Development

Our Lab is exploring two distinct development paths of UAV technology: a quadcopter's capacity to autonomously sense and perceive its environment, and its ability to interface and interact with people. These parallel aims steered the development of SkyCall's tour-guide system, resulting in a platform that can efficiently locate, communicate with, and guide visitors around MIT campus, specifically along predetermined routes or towards user-determined destinations.

A custom SkyCall app was developed for human/UAV interface, enabling the visitor to make specific requests, and the UAV to both locate and wirelessly communicate with them. When the user presses the ‘call’ button, SkyCall instantaneously accesses the GPS location of the visitor’s phone and relays spatial coordinates to the nearest available UAV.

The quadcopter itself utilises onboard autopilot and GPS navigation systems with sonar sensors and WiFi connectivity (via a ground station), enabling it to fly autonomously and communicate with the user via the SkyCall app. The UAV also integrates an onboard camera as both an information gathering system (relaying images to a ‘base’ location upon encountering the user), as well as a manually-controlled camera, accessible to the visitor-come-tourist again via the SkyCall app.

Future

SkyCall is Phase I of a larger development program that is currently underway at Senseable City Lab, with the broader aim of exploring novel, positive uses of UAV technology in the urban context. This project offers a case study within our ongoing research initiative, and suggests promising new infrastructure potentials.

1 : Calling

User presses the 'CALL' button in the app. User’s GPS location from the phone is relayed via server to the guide, which uses this to locate and fly to them.

2 : Arriving

Guide arrives at user’s location. Upon greeting them, the guide awaits further instruction from the user regarding the destination they wish to reach. The user enters their destination information - in the case of MIT campus, a building/room ‘code’ - to inform the guide where they wish to get to.

3 : Start

Upon pressing ‘GO’ from the app, the tour begins.

4 : Follow

The drone leads ahead at a walking pace, at which point the user can drop their phone in their pocket and leisurely follow the guide as it leads them to where they wish to go. The user is freed from looking down at maps or phone screens, and can concentrate on his/her surrounding environment.

5 : Pause

Should the user wish to, they can manually pause and resume the guide at any given point. By pressing ‘PAUSE’, the guide will hold its position and await the ‘RESUME’ command from the user, once they are ready to continue.

6 : Information

As the tour is in progress, the guide provides interest regarding surrounding points of interest that they may pass.

7 : Waiting

Should the user fall behind, the guide is at all times aware of the user’s GPS location - it uses this to determine whether the user has fallen further than a few metres behind. In this case, it will hold its position; a message on the app informs the user to close up to the guide, at which point the tour will resume.

8 : Destination

The guide successfully leads the user to their chosen destination.

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App

The Skycall app was developed as the integral mode of communication between the user and the guide. Whilst the guide flies autonomously, the app allows the user a certain degree of control (such as calling, pausing and resuming the guide), whilst allowing the guide to communicate with the user where necessary (such as informing them to close up if they get too far behind).

Press

The material on this web site can be used freely in any publication provided that
1. it is duly credited as a project by the MIT Senseable City Lab
2. a PDF copy of the publication is sent to senseable-press@mit.edu